All posts tagged Ronald Reagan

John Feehery argued in a Think Tank post Wednesday that one of the many reasons Republicans “hated” Bill Clinton was because he stole their ideas. But the point of governing is reaching consensus, using the best ideas, and actually accomplishing things such as balancing the budget and welfare reform. It shouldn’t just be about taking positions so you have talking points for the next campaign. That’s what most politicians in Washington seem to have forgotten but what disaffected voters know all too well. Read More »

Businesses, trade groups, administration officials and others have worked to convince some skeptical House Republicans to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank when its charter expires this fall.

Now supporters of the agency, which supports loans to overseas companies to help them buy U.S. exports, are tapping someone they hope might be more convincing: the late President Ronald Reagan. Read More »

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz won his seat in 2012 in a surprise victory, and since then he has been vocally pushing a conservative agenda—a tough foreign policy, social conservatism, limits to government—inspired, he says, by his hero since boyhood, Ronald Reagan. But there’s much more about the man to learn close-up: Read More »

As calls mount for Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, some of her friends and confidants have expressed concern about the toll two years of campaigning—not to mention four or eight years in the White House—would have on the former secretary of state. [WSJ's Peter Nicholas reports about that here.]

Mrs. Clinton will turn 69 years old just before Election Day 2016, which would make her the second-oldest president after Ronald Reagan, who was also 69 and a few months on Election Day. Read More »

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) on Monday pointed to Ronald Reagan as an example of a president who believed in forceful foreign policy but relied on diplomacy as well, as he criticized GOP lawmakers who he said have taken Russia’s occupation of Ukraine as an occasion to “beat their chest.”

Mr. Paul brought down the house at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week with a speech that offered a stinging indictment of President Barack Obama, and subsequently won the CPAC straw poll. The speech focused on civil liberties but didn’t address Ukraine or other foreign policy issues. Read More »

Conservative activist Grover Norquist, who applauds the Senate’s passage of an immigration overhaul bill, says conservative support for the reform effort is stronger than it may appear now that the legislation moves over to the House.

Mr. Norquist said he backs the effort to change the nation’s system and allow more immigration because he’s a Reagan Republican. Speaking in a Seib & Wessel interview on WSJ.com, he added: “I was there with Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan in the ’80s and with the part of the conservative movement that recognizes that people are an asset not a liability. More people make us stronger.”

And while many conservatives in the House staunchly oppose the Senate’s comprehensive immigration legislation and its effort to give legal status to illegal immigrants, Mr. Norquist said conservative support for the movement actually is stronger now than it was when former Republican President George W. Bush attempted an immigration overhaul in 2007. Read More »

WASHINGTON–Five years after being prevented from doing so, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech at Germany’s Brandenburg Gate.

The large sandstone gate, one of Germany’s most-visited landmarks, is in Berlin and was the backdrop for one of former President Ronald Reagan’s most famous sentences: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The columned-gate has become a symbol of the country’s reunification and a reminder of its divided past. Read More »

For most Americans, the era of Margaret Thatcher always will be inextricably intertwined with the era of Ronald Reagan.

Mrs. Thatcher, the sharp-tongued veteran political operator, and Mr. Reagan, the genial outsider from California, may have seemed too different in style to mesh personally. But they shared humble working-class backgrounds–one the daughter of a grocer, the other the son of a salesman—and they were ideological soul-mates, on both economic policy and international affairs.

They also were linked by their successful, parallel efforts to launch conservative revolutions that upended long periods of more liberal governance in their respective countries. They rose to power 18 months apart on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and their dual ascension to the top was widely seen as heralding a new conservative wave across the Western democratic world. Read More »

Amid tax talks in Washington, here’s a rundown of major tax changes over the past three decades.

1986: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a major overhaul of the tax code—a model for the kind of redo many lawmakers today aspire to—which lowered individual tax rates, raised corporate taxes and eliminated scores of loopholes and shelters. The most notable target was a tax shelter for real-estate investors that limited deductions for losses from passive investments. The measure also eliminated the deductibility of interest paid on credit cards and other consumer loans.

The top individual tax rate was cut to 28% from 50% and the top long-term capital gains rate rose to the level of ordinary rates, or 28% from 20%, to help ensure the tax cut didn’t disproportionately benefit higher-income taxpayers. The measure also took millions of the working poor off the federal income-tax rolls by expanding the earned income tax credit and increasing the standard deduction and the personal exemption. Read More »

Time magazine’s selection of Barack Obama as Person of the Year keeps an interesting streak alive: Since 1927 when the tradition began, all presidents who have served more than one term (whether through election or succession) have been named Person of the Year at least twice.

With Wednesday’s announcement, Mr. Obama has been person of the year in 2008 and 2012. President George W. Bush was named person of the year twice as well – in 2000 and in 2004, the years he was elected and re-elected – same as Mr. Obama. Read More »

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Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.